Whitehead Farm, June 20th, 1863.
I asked, and it was given unto me. The books and slates came
and were welcomed, and many of them are already worn in the service. Your help
was so ready and efficient, in my hour of need, I incline to drive to your door
again. The refugees, with their rags and vermin, are crowding into Norfolk. One
hundred and twenty (or more), very destitute, have just gone to Craney Island
from Suffolk, and we have nothing to spare from the farms wherewith to clothe
them. It is almost certain that the number will steadily increase. How shall we
clothe them? They cannot be expected to pay for their clothing. We have at no
time been able to meet a present need; and the prospect before us looks very
naked. I am dropping my books and slates about upon the farms, but I cannot get
a horse to keep constantly upon the road as I expected to do. However, we have
work at home; but when I do get to the farms, old men and children flock to my
side, and their interest and attention show that in one half hour they get a
mighty impulse.
L. C.
SOURCE: New-England Educational Commission for
Freedmen, Extracts from Letters of Teachers and Superintendents of the
New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen, Fourth Series, January 1, 1864,
p. 11-2
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